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Over the last 2 years I’ve been involved with over 200 separate business that use SYSPRO and what I have noticed over this time, is that those businesses that have invested and understood the need for having a skilled ERP Administrator have thrived, whilst those which have carried on without considering the requirement for a dedicated Skilled ERP resource have struggled. This is because they have failed to identify the need to recruit a conduit that would allow them to embrace the beneficial process and system changes, and adapt to emerging technologies.

One of my favourite films from the past is Minority Report, mainly because of the technology shown in these films, and not least because of the leading actor! It amazes me to think that Minority Report is already 11 years old. It seemed so far into the future at the time and yet today we are already seeing evidence of the technology used in Minority Report. Some of the technology and futuristic user interfaces have become realized and the way they have come into use is a good example of the term 'consumerization of technology'.Wikipedia describes Consumerization as:

I recently spent a few days on the road visiting customers across various US states. Preparing for this trip, I felt a little stressed about how I would still be able to manage SYSPRO USA’s Social Media Accounts even though I would be spending the majority of each day away from my laptop or any sort of office setting. Thankfully, social media has vastly evolved over the past few years and mobile application developments like the Twitter and Facebook Apps allow me the freedom to still do my job even though I may not be in the office. At the end of my trip I was sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home and I spent some time catching up on work on my iPad. Reflecting back on my week, I started to think about how Enterprise Software has also immensely evolved to keep up with trends and what is now known as the “on-the-go” worker. Similar to my situation of needing to maintain my work while on-the-go, manufacturers and distributors need the ability to run their businesses away from the office and their biggest necessity is access to real-time data.

Many businesses have to deal with the problem of buying product in one unit and selling it in another. It’s one of those items of ERP functionality that you don’t think of – unless you are in a business where it’s a necessity.

Developing ERP software is a tricky business, especially if the software is not being developed for any specific customer but rather for a range of customers, some of whom have yet to purchase your product. A software product needs to evolve, be constantly updated and advanced, if it’s not to fall into neglect and disuse, and that can happen all too often in the software market.

Henry Ford is widely, if erroneously, credited with the quote “If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse.” While Mr. Ford was correct NOT to listen to customers when he famously started his assembly line, he should have listened a little harder to trends about the types of cars people actually wanted. The problem Mr. Ford faced was that his customers didn’t know what they didn’t know – I’m sure you all know what I mean. We continually get asked for a product change, with the customer often providing the solution. But the customer can only provide a solution in the context of his or her experience. If Mr. Ford had actually asked a customer what they wanted and then probed the reply, he might have discovered that he or she just wanted something that was faster, not necessarily a horse.

As a cycling fan, I am excited by the start of each new season particularly spring time as the "Spring Classics" get underway and everyone starts to look towards the summer blockbuster, the Tour de France. This is also the season in which I start to seriously ramp up my training as I look forward to the Tour de France stage (Annecy to Annecy-Semnoz) I will be riding on 7th July. With this in mind, I will share what I consider similarities in learning the necessary skills to power tailor and customize SYSPRO, and training for such a gruelling endurance event.

Recently I have been exposed to a big debate on an ERP LinkedIn forum around the use of descriptions in the industry such as customizing, personalizing, tailoring, and configuring. Is this just marketing semantics, or are there very real differences in the meaning of these phrases and the implications of using these phrases when describing, or more to the point, promoting an ERP system?

Working in SYSPRO, I know we pride ourselves on the fact that our ERP system is, and I quote: “highly flexible and customizable”, that we are known as the "go-to" solution because of this, but I think it is important to unpack what we mean by these phrases and what the consumer understands by these phrases. If we are to be responsible in ensuring that what our customers see and understand they are getting, is in actual fact exactly what they are getting, then I don’t think we can use the excuse “I can only be responsible for what I say. I cannot be responsible for what you understand”.

On my previous post, I blogged about how Einstein’s Theory of Relativity inspired the SYSPRO USA go-to-market campaign 'S=MC²'; where S = SYSPRO ERP, M = Material and C² refers to Cost and Cash. This is about using amazing technology to get back to basics. Managing your assets and material, managing costs through efficiencies and visibility and managing the most important business resource there is – your funding and cash.

Einstein also inspired us when we named SYSPRO’s latest Quantum Architecture offering. In the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, Einstein attempts to explain the behavior of matter and its interactions with energy. SYSPRO’s Quantum Architecture attempts to resolve the behavior of your business and how your business interacts with technology and organization energy - the people and processes in your business.

Regardless of what business you happen to be in, the end of the year is a natural time to reflect on what’s happened in our lives, our organisations and around the world. Although the global manufacturing sector has shown erratic and generally slow performance this year, the economic powerhouses of the US and China managed to register slight improvements in manufacturing activity in October. However, many other economies around the world suffered further contraction or flat growth across their manufacturing industries.